Griffin Reinhart goes right back under the microscope as Oilers take on Jets

While hotshot Finns Patrik Laine and Jesse Puljujarvi will grab most of the headlines, there is no single member of the Edmonton Oilers who needs a strong performance in Winnipeg tonight more than defenceman Griffin Reinhart.

The 22-year-old defender has been the subject of wrath in some corners since the day he was acquired by the Oilers for two high draft choices at the NHL draft 15 months ago. He certainly didn’t help his cause in his first game of the current preseason, in Vancouver two nights ago when the Oilers fell 5-3 to the Canucks. Reinhart did score a goal but took a bad penalty and struggled on several occasions to contain wide speed, a concern in the past which remains his Achilles heel. As I (generously, in the eyes of some) wrote in that night’s game review:

#8 Griffin Reinhart, 4. One of the more noticeable Oilers, and not always in a good way. On the positive side he did some solid defending in tight quarters, won some battles, and moved the puck north. One notable play involved excellent positioning and timing to box out an opponent camped out right on the doorstep despite Reinhart having lost his stick earlier in the sequence. Better, he scored the 3-3 goal in the last minute of the second on a good wrister from the slot. On the downside he was in the box for the first Vancouver goal after taking a careless puck-over-glass penalty, had a bad turnover that led to some extended Vancouver pressure, and was beaten to the outside on no fewer than three occasions by Joe LaBate, Alexis D’Aoust, and Derek Dorsett — not exactly household names. Whether it was misplaying the angles, misjudging the speed of the attacker, or bad turns, it’s a problem that needs to be fixed.

A couple of mitigating factors worth noting: 1) Reinhart had been scratched from the split-squad games for reasons that remain unclear, but suggest he may have been less than 100%. 2) In a line-up featuring six lefty defencemen, he was playing on the right side, paired with Dillon Simpson.

That won’t be the case tonight, when the Oilers will ice a balanced defence group with three lefty-righty pairs. Reinhart’s partner will Matthew Benning, the most recent addition to the Oilers’ NHL Progeny club, along with Simpson, David Musil, and Reinhart himself. All four defence hopefuls are sons of NHLers, each of whom played over 500 games in the bigs.

For such players, each preseason game is a huge opportunity. Reinhart is the most advanced of the four, at least in theory, but needs a bounceback game in a mahor way if he hopes to be in the mix when rosters get declared next month. There are a couple of factors beyond his control: his contract and the problems it potentially creates in the salary cap, specifically the “bonus cushion” on a team with several other pricey ELCs; and the surfeit of left-shooting defencemen also in the mix, including Jordan Oesterle who also plays tonight. What Reinhart can control is his own performance, and it’s going to need to be considerably better than he showed on Wednesday.

Todd McLellan took a bullet for his player on Friday, suggesting it was a mistake by the coaching staff to start the defender on his wrong side while reminding it was “Game Number One”. The decision to put the defender right back out there on his natural side can be interpreted as a vote of confidence and/or a challenge from the coach. I’ll go for c) both.

Up front, all eyes will be on Puljujarvi, and by extension, Laine. The pair of talented 18-year-old wingers were linemates at the World Junior, opponents in the SM-liiga playoffs, and will remain on opposite sides of the puck as NHLers. Puljujarvi had an indifferent debut against a bunch of scrubs wearing Calgary Flames sweaters on Monday, and will get a stiffer test against a stronger Jets group tonight. He’ll also get stronger linemates, as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins returns to the blue and orange after a strong showing at the World Cup of Hockey, with veteran Benoit Pouliot on the left flank.

The second line listed above looks a lot closer to the fourth line that will open the season, while the bottom six is chock-a-block with guys battling for a spot. The entire third line as shown along with Slepyshev will be playing their third game this week, as Todd McLellan wants to get a close look at all of them. All have had good-to-excellent showings to date, while Lander and Pakarinen are more known quanitities who nonetheless are in deep to make the club. Looks like Caggiula will stay in the middle while Khaira — who also played pivot the first two games — gets the shift out to left wing.

The Oilers received some good and bad news on the injury front:

Considering how Maroon looked when he left Wednesday’s game, “day-to-day” sounds pretty good; even if he misses the rest of the pre-season his spot in the line-up is secure. Less so in the case of Yakupov, who was a late scratch from Wednesday’s game and remains one tonight. He too is a player who needs to get his looks; a hot pre-season would go a long way to making his case. It’s a sad situation when a former first-overall pick remains something of a bubble player entering his fifth NHL season, suffice to say more bad injury luck is the last thing he needs.

Cam Talbot gets the start in goal, with Laurent Brossoit dressing as backup. No word as yet as to how, or if, they will split the duties. Early practice has been two periods for the starter, one for the closer.

The Oilers are now down to four stoppers in camp, having re-assigned Nick Ellis to Bakersfield camp in Thursday’s only move after the rookie pro got his debut in Vancouver Wednesday. The only question is if he’ll be a backup in Bakersfield or a starter in Norfolk, with the smart money on the latter scenario.

Game time tonight is 18:00 MDT, with the contest to be streamed on the Oilers’ website.

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